Charges Filed In Fatal Scissors Attack

MOUNDS VIEW, (AP) - A Minneapolis man is charged with fatally stabbing a man he met on a phone chat line.

Fifty-one-year-old Stephen Gooler is charged with second-degree murder in Ramsey County District Court. A criminal complaint says Gooler and the victim, 49-year-old Perry Paulson, met Thursday and were drinking at Paulson's Mounds View apartment before he was attacked.

Gooler told investigators he blacked out after the two made dinner and doesn't remember anything else. A complaint says Paulson went to a neighbor's apartment for help after he was stabbed. Neighbors tried to stop the bleeding from Paulson's neck and shoulder area.

The complaint, filed Monday, says Gooler fell or jumped off a third-floor balcony and remains hospitalized with broken vertebrae and brain injuries. A medical examiner says the likely murder weapon was a scissors.